Rep. John Lewis attacked Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on Wednesday, calling comments he made during a Supreme Court argument on the Voting Rights Act “an affront to all of what the civil rights movement stood for.”

Scalia, a member of the court’s conservative wing, was intensely skeptical of the Act during Wednesday’s hearing, labeling its continued existence a “perpetuation of racial entitlement.”

“It was unreal, unbelievable, almost shocking, for a member of the court to use certain language. I can see politicians and even members of Congress — but it is just appalling to me,” Lewis said on MSNBC’s “PoliticsNation.”

“It is an affront to all of what the civil rights movement stood for, what people died for, what people bled for, and those of us who marched across that bridge 48 years ago, we didn’t march for some racial entitlement,” he continued. “We wanted to open up the political process, and let all of the people come in, and it didn’t matter whether they were black or white, Latino, Asian-American or Native American.”

Lewis, a one-time chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, was beaten in 1965 while marching across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala. Later that year, President Lyndon Johnson introduced the Voting Rights Act. Before Wednesday’s oral argument, Lewis wrote a Washington Post op-ed titled “Why we still need the Voting Rights Act.”

“The right to vote is precious, almost sacred,” said Lewis, who attended the high court’s argument. “It is the most powerful non-violent instrument that we have in a Democratic society. If the courts come to that point, where they declare this section, Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, unconstitutional, it would be a dagger in the heart of the Democratic process.”

Advocates fear the court’s conservatives are prepared to strike down Section 5, which enables the Justice Department to block changes to voting laws in several mostly Southern states. Chief Justice John Roberts and Scalia both seemed to believe racial conditions have improved enough so the law would no longer be necessary. Backers of the law argue a recent wave of voter ID laws — which disproportionately impact black voters — show the legislation is still necessary.

NAACP president and CEO Benjamin Jealous released a statement Thursday, joining Lewis in his reproach of Scalia’s words.

“Justice Scalia should refrain from speculating on the thoughts and motivations of the Congress and defer to the judgment of the overwhelming bipartisan majority that voted for reauthorization in 2006,” Jealous said in the press release. “Democracy is an American entitlement. Voting rights protection is an American entitlement. Guaranteed access to the ballot box is not the right of one race, one age group, or one economic class. Assaulting the Voting Rights Act, on the other hand, is an assault on America’s ability to be America for all Americans.”

He added, “While much has changed since 1965, the record is clear that discriminatory election practices still exist in counties like Shelby County and states like Alabama.”